Oz is Awesome but I Never Got Used to the Tornado

I gotta admit, my fellow Macrocranians, the entire past five years of my comic book convention going was a lie. I may have sounded like I was having the time of my life during the podcasts I recorded while I was conventioning and talking to guests but the truth is I absolutely hated the convention part of it. I hated the long drives and bus rides and expensive food and hotels and overpriced tickets just to get in and I hated the frenzied atmosphere. I would've rather met those comic artists and creators in a half empty comic shop or bar or 7 Eleven Slurpee fountain somewhere in some secluded part of town instead of at some giant super mega convention with tens of thousands of other people and dealers and organizers and Deadpool cosplayers sucking the life and money out of me. And to be completely honest, I did find some comfort in the idea of moving to the middle of nowhere in Georgia where I am now because it meant there was no reasonable expectation or possibility that I would ever have go to another convention again. Except for one thing-that damn box of space bunny Christmas cards!



BUCKY OR BUST!

I thought I could retire from comic conventioning after hitting the apex of my comic congoing career at East Coast Comic Con 2015. There I talked to great legends of my toy robots comic booking childhood and uncovered fantastic new unknown truths about Transformers comic history. It was a massive high point where I could have called it quits and never gone back. And to a great extent I did believe that was my last one. But there was still the matter of that friggin' box of Bucky O'Hare Christmas cards I had signed by only two of the three creators of Bucky O'Hare. It was my last boss left unbeaten, my unfinished concerto, my second Death Star hanging ominous and unfinished around the Endor moon of my mind. So despite my self proclaimed con retirement I found myself compelled to hit up HeroesCon 2015 in North Carolina last Sunday. After achieving a lifetime's worth of comic celebrity encounters over the past few years, I still had to knock out one more show and get that final autograph. So I bought my ticket to Oz, hopped on the nearest tornado and went to meet the comic illustrating wizard Michael Golden.



FIFTY FIRST CONVENTIONS

You know those stories about the police detective who has one last case to solve before he retires, or the spice smuggler who has one last mission to Alderaan before he pays off Jabba, or the Jaeger pilot who has cancer that will kill him if he fights kaijus again? They all get screwed in the end! They get shot or carbonited or eaten by kaijus and I knew that was exactly what was going to happen to me at HeroesCon (at least metaphorically).

This is because I like to live in a fantasy where every famous person I meet remembers clearly in vivid detail the one time I got them to sign some thirty year old action figure or comic book or paper plate with toy robot cartoons on it. And they smile and think warm thoughts about the time they did an interview with that one guy who asked those terrible questions for the podcast they'd never heard of before or since. But the truth of course is I am just another customer buying autographs or prints or comics or whatever from them and they don't even know my name, much less remember it. And that kills me. It kills me to know our meetings are in no way significant or have any lasting impact on them beyond the five bucks I paid for their scribbles. That's why I have a personal rule that I never ever ever talk to the same famous person at conventions twice in the same lifetime (unless it is Jose Delbo but the exception proves the rule there. The other exception is heavy metal singer Bruce Dickinson, who I did meet once and was never disappointed that he didn't recognize me when I was sitting in the 78th row at Iron Maiden concerts.)



OH THANK GOLDEN I'M FREE AT LAST

Yes, it was that box of Bucky O'Hare Christmas cards that I'd gotten signed by Larry Hama and Neal Adams at conventions prior that had me laying awake at night thinking about how no Bucky O'Hare piece of memorabilia is complete without Michael Golden's autograph on it. I simply could not quit going to cons until I had the one key signature I needed on that friggin' thing. So to complete the trifecta, the holy trinity of Bucky O'Hare creators, I had to go on the pilgrimage to Charlotte, North Carolina to get that damn box signed so help me god by Michael Golden.

And sign it he did. It was probably just another one of billions of signatures he's done, but man, he will never know how much of a momentous occasion it was for me. It's like he was signing my life back to me. Never again would I have to go to a comic convention. Never again would I have to brave the crowds and expensive food and giant lines and Deadpool cosplayers and all the associated nervousness and anxiety I got from meeting people and going to those places. Now truly everything I ever wished to accomplish at comic cons was done. I was free. It was over. Michael Golden signed my ticket and Bucky O'Hare was the pilot on the last flight of the Righteous Indignation out of conventionville.



MY HEROES DON'T DISAPPOINT ME, THEY JUST KINDA NEVER REMEMBER MY NAME

Thankfully Michael Golden didn't remember my awkward interview skills (from episode 25) four years ago or if he did he was still very warm and professional anyways. He made those precious few seconds I was at his table unforgettable by just being enthusiastic about Bucky O'Hare. He even had a single Bucky print left for sale and I grabbed it. I could have gone home then and it would have been super sweet but I just had to go over and revisit a couple of other creators like Mark Texeira, Tom Scioli, and Bill Sienkewicz. It was a mini Roboplastic Podcastalypse reunion of guests and acquaintances from the last few years (in my head at least-I'm sure they didn't know me from Johnny Blaze).

To my amazement they still talked to me again even though I don't do a podcast anymore! Holy hell if I knew they'd talk anyways I never would have come up with the ridiculous pretense of having a podcast in the first place! But at least with my recordings I have something uniquely related to any given convention experience to show for all the time and money I spent. I can handle paying for autographs (and being forgotten for free) as long as I have proof that for a few moments the giants knew my name.

Tom Scioli and Mark Texeira signed Transformers stuff for me.

DOROTHY WOULD'VE COME HOME SOONER IF SHE WASN'T FREELOADING IN OZ

I think now I can get on with my life and put all this convention madness behind me. There's no reason left to pack my bags and stay overnight somewhere hundreds of miles from home just to get maybe 30 seconds of interaction with some comic creator I admire. Nowadays with YouTube and Periscope and everyone and their mother doing a podcast I can pretty much sit at home and watch the action at the big cons from my living room. And of course eBay renders buying things at conventions rather pointless by making it possible to pay over inflated convention prices from the comfort of home. Cons are still good for meeting creators but I have been there and done that to my utmost satisfaction. HeroesCon 2015 was the best double last convention I could've ever chosen. From here on out I ain't going anywhere to see anybody unless anywhere is my backyard and the anybody is my kid who wants to play ball. Good luck to all you Dorothys out there still jumping in those tornadoes. I hope the wizard remembers your name!

The Last Transformer I Will Ever Buy-Metal Earth Megatron

I've had a great run collecting Transformers but it's time to move on. After much contemplation, I've decided I want to finish off my collection with a piece so memorable, so truly special that it will be something worthy of the honor of being my very last Transformer. It will be a figure that when I look at it on the shelf I will cry because it embodies the emotional significance of the end of my Transformers journey. It will remind me forevermore of how wonderful my life was made over the past 31 years by Hasbro's special recipe of little robotic puzzle people made from plastic and metal and rubber. It will be the capstone of my Transformers collection and my rite of passage into a true manhood where I collect only old Macross models from Bandai. And so I have decided Metal Earth Megatron will be the very last Transformer I will ever buy.



I WOULD'VE WAITED AN ETERNITY FOR TO BE LAST

Back in the 80s I never got model kits of Transformers characters where I lived and that was cosmic injustice. They made GoBots models for crying out loud! Japan got tons of Transformers model kits from Kabaya but my whole childhood passed without a single official Transformer model. That is why the Metal Earth 3-D Megatron Metal Model kit is an epic milestone for all Transformerkind worthy of the honor of being my final Transformer ever. Here at the end of my Transformer journey I finally fulfilled the lifelong dream of putting together an official Transformers model kit. And not just any one, but an actual metal version of the greatest Decepticon. Honestly it was an enormous pain in the butt cutting out and manipulating all the little pieces and getting the stubborn metal to curve around in parts. The 'ages 14+' warning is no joke and you'll find lots of complaints from upset people about how these are too hard to put together, but the challenge truly pays off in the end. I now have a gleaming metal G1 Megatron statue, shining like a trophy I earned after 30 years of being good at toy robots. This is truly the crown jewel of my collection. I'm as sure that I'm done with Transformers as I am certain that that no better version of Megatron will ever be made. So that is why, with great pride and humility, I have decided Metal Earth Megatron is the very last Transformer I will ever buy.

...And Delbo For All

Free Comic Book Day 2015 came yesterday with one week to go before I leave southern Florida. I decided to make the most of it and go to Past Present & Future Comics in West Palm Beach because they were hosting a guest appearance by my favorite Transformer artist José Delbo. Stalking Mister Delbo over the last few years at all his public appearances made my time in SoFlo truly memorable. FCBD 2015 then was a bittersweet experience for me since this would be one of the last times I'd ever get to talk to the guy. But he'll be doing another appearance at a con the day before I leave Florida next week so hopefully we will have at least one more awkward con experience to share.

HOLY UNPREPARED FOR THIS ADVENTURE WE ARE BATMAN

Like the most dedicated of comics fans/relentless stalkers, up to this point I have just about every major Delbo Transformers book in my collection signed by him already. So in the weeks leading to this appearance I looked through his enormous catalog of work online and found two interesting non-Transformers, yet still 80s toy related books he'd done. The first was a Wheeled Warriors picture book called Message from Audric. I scored that one off eBay with plenty of time before Free Comic Book Day. The second comic was a lot more obscure and I barely found out about it the night before the show. It was a short 4 page promotional M.A.S.K. mini comic called "Secret of the Temple" that he penciled and Pablo Marcos inked. It came bundled with only eight specific DC comic book issues during the latter half of 1986. My only chance would be to search through the back issue bins at the comic shop to find at least one of the eight books I was looking for and hope the M.A.S.K. mini comic was still in it. This would never happen to Batman. I imagine if Bruce Wayne went to conventions he'd always be totally prepared with every book José Delbo book ever made in a giant rolling Bat Vault ready to get signed. I also imagine standing in line behind Bruce Wayne at conventions must really really suck.


COME FOR THE TRANSFORMERS, STAY FOR THE PEE PEE ROOM

So I get to the shop on Free Comic Day and I hit the back issues hard and lo and behold they had one of the comics I needed with the M.A.S.K. mini book inside. I take it over to his table and of course we start talking about Transformers. This was the first meeting I'd had with him since I went to East Coast Comic Con and saw Dave Hunt and Bob Budiansky. I played him a little clip of Dave Hunt saying hi that I recorded at ECCC and then I told him a story Bob Budiansky told me. Mister Delbo had a copy of The Transformers Universe trade paperback on his table and I laughed when I saw it and that's what brought up the Budiansky story. Mr. Budiansky told me that José asked to borrow his copy of the Transformers Universe TPB because it was a really good reference for Transformers characters and all the fans were asking him to draw these robots he hadn't done in over 20 years. José smiled and then in that Super Mario accent of his he asked me, 'Did Bob Budiansky tell you when I went to the pee pee room, too?' Now I've heard some great comic book writers tell really funny stories but I don't think I've ever laughed at anything as much as when I hear José Delbo say 'pee pee room'.

THERE ARE FEW MOMENTS IN LIFE WHEN THE RIGHT THING TO SAY IS NOT AMAZON GAZONGA

My moment of shame immortalized on Facebook

Now of course it is not enough for me to just get a signature. I always try to get some jokey little saying next to everything I ask anyone to sign. It's usually something I've thought up that ties into the item being signed. So for the M.A.S.K. book I had him write 'My pencil is the ultimate weapon!' and for the Wheeled Warriors book it was 'Keep on Rolling'. But then at his table he also had a really cool print he did of Wonder Woman riding Ravage. I was stunned and I bought one, but what to do for the witty saying? Then as I was stuck there trying to come up with something, a Wonder Woman cosplayer comes up to José's table and asks me what I'm doing. So I explain how I was trying to come up with a witty saying for my autographed print. Then she decides she wants a witty saying for her autographed print that has no Transformers on it at all! But the problem is neither she nor Delbo can remember any appropriately witty Wonder Woman sayings. Here's the part I don't understand-they then both looked at me and expected ME to know a witty Wonder Woman line! And they were both super disappointed when I couldn't come up with anything! 'AMAZON GAZONGA!' I should have said! 'TELL HIM TO WRITE AMAZON GAZONGA ON YOUR WONDER WOMAN'S TITS!'

I'VE GOT SOMETHING TO SAY! I DREW TRANSFORMERS TODAY!

Somehow I was able to overcome José Delbo's disappointment in my lack of Wonder Woman knowledge and I made it out of there alive. I don't know what they were expecting-I don't know anything about regular women much less wonder ones. (Ask my wife.) In the end the Wonder Womanfan just had José write the first result she got from Googling 'Wonder Woman quotes' on her phone. Unfortunately for him it was a gigantic paragraph about justice and womanhood and strangling people with lassos, but he wrote it out like a true Amazonian. As for me, I had him write 'Ride the Lightning' on my Wonder Woman/Ravage print and I think it came out all right. My personal rule is that if you don't know what you want José Delbo to write, just whip out some Metallica and people will think you're witty and prepared. Or at least a lot of fun to be behind in line.

MORE PICTURES OF THIS MOMENTOUS OCCASION ARE AT THE ROBOFACIAL BOOKOCALYPSE

ONE LAST BLAST!

The breaking of the 82nd seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse is the the sound of millions of Bon Jovis and Bruce Speingsteens crying out in terror as the Nostrodomatron invades New Jersey! Yes I hit up East Coast Comic Con 2015 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center and boy did I have a blast talking to the most Robotastic lineup of Marvel comic creators I have ever seen at one convention. Listen in horror as I get Mark Texeira to sign a cover he's always wanted people to know he did while the books I asked Herb Trimpe to sign weren't so lucky. Plus I get in some titanic conversations with the TechSpectacular Bob Budiansky and Darin' Dave Hunt that shake the very foundations of our understanding of life, the universe, toy robot comics, and kangaroos wearing robotic body armor. What happens when you sing showtunes to Larry Hama? What unpublished Marvel Transformers comic art did Dave Hunt have Dwelling in the Depths of his drawings? And did Hasbro keep Bob Budiansky locked in the back and feed him raw meat? Find out all that and more in this HUNT 'N BUD & HERB WITH TEX edition of the podcastalypse!

Or download it directly

See more of my East Coast Comic Con pictures at Flickr Macrocrania.


COMICS CON AMIGOS

I could not have picked a better con for the final convention recorded episode of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse. It had a lineup of legendary comic creators, some of whom I was able to trick into doing a little talky talky while they signed comics and drew sketches and met with their fans. ECCC had that absolutely perfect mix of celebrity and fan interaction that I always hope to get when I go to a show. Above left you'll see someone doing a professional interview with Bob Budiansky with a camera and microphone and everything! Meanwhile, Herb Trimpe was sketching incredibly accurate likenesses of people on the backs of their shirts!


THEY'RE SUCH CARDS!

Legendary professional fan Fred Hembeck was destroying the Marvel Universe way before Ultron made it cool. He brought a binder full of sketch cards that was worth the price of admission to just look through. He gave me the lowdown on why his ROM sketches are so tough to get even though he's constantly eBaying them all the time. I finally got Larry Hama to sign my Bucky O'Hare Christmas cards and I got to prove to him that I, too, had time to see plays. Massive thanks to the Real Life Peter Griffin for helping me with the outro to this episode.


CONVENTION LIKE IT'S 1979!

My favorite dealer of the show award went to the RetroArtBlog.com. They had tons of stuff from the late 70s that blew me away like Micronaut Colorforms, Starbirds galore, metal lunchboxes up the wazoo, and even the super rare Godzilla tabletop game, which they demonstrated to a guy wearing a helmet made of plush puppies. They were even selling the control art for the Shogun Warrior Colorforms background and a crazy Japanese Super Robot Projector set that I'd never seen before in my life. If there's a thirty year old Colorforms set or ViewMaster reel you need, put on your bell bottoms, load up some Bee Gees in the 8 track player of your custom van and go hit them up.


ALL THE WAY TO TEX'ES

Mark Texeira was an absolute firecracker as he always is and he finally settled the question of who penciled the cover to Transformers #3. He also settled the question of what he's doing now by telling me about his Law of Resistance book with PKMM Entertainment, his A Hero's Death Kickstarter project, the recent Ghost Rider cover he did, and his upcoming appearances at Big Wow ComicFest April 17-8, Motor City Comic Con in May, and HeroesCon in June!


THE BEST LOUSY SKETCHER EVER!

It is always a pleasure catching up with my favorite lousy sketcher, Papercutz Editor-In-Chief Mr. Jim Salicrup. I bought a couple lousy sketches and although I didn't record it, we talked about Transformers and Visionaries and that time I interviewed him back at Miami Book Fair 2010. (Well maybe not that last one.) He signed my Transformers #4 and Visionaries #1 (which he wrote) and I asked him if he knew anything about The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas but he didn't know they did. I let him know how awesome those Papercutz Lego Ninjago books sold at my kid's first grade book fairs and I told him he really needs to come down to Florida more often so he can tell us some of his ol' Spidey Super Stories .




DARIN' TO TALK WITH DAVE!

It was a highlight of my convention interviewing life to finally meet Darin' Dave Hunt, the man who inked the majority of Jose Delbo's pencils during their run on Transformers. Mr. Hunt brought several binders of his work to show to fans, including a couple pages of never-before-published Transformers art! He was able to talk a lot about how much work Transformers was and why there were some books that were created but never published. He also explained who that guy was on the cover to People magazine he drew in Transformers #45! Check out his lengthy ComicBookDB.com profile and hit him up on Facebook!



DWELLIN' IN THE DRAWINGS!

The pages above are part of an unpublished Transformers comic from the original Marvel run, whose existence had up to this point not been widely known. Mr. Hunt didn't really understand the magnitude of importance these three pages of unpublished Transformers comics art carried with them. As the artist he didn't really know the characters or the significance of a Transformer story that never made it to print, but I made sure to explain to him what a big deal it was. He did say he thought the characters he inked over Ian Akin's pencils were a noticeable departure from the designs he was used to drawing. That would make sense since these pages were from a story that was adapted from the Transformers cartoon, featuring characters that were never used in the mainstream Budiansky/Furman books. He told me he wished he knew more about Transformers so that he could have understood these things, but I told him he didn't have to know anything about them-he LIVED them for a good many years! He agreed with me and said he may not know much about the mythos, but boy could he draw the heck out of 'em.

UPDATE: The following sites picked up on the news of these pages' discovery and further commentary can be found at these links: Seibertron.com-Unpublished Marvel Transformers G1 Comic Art by Ian Akin and David Hunt - Dweller in the Depths TFormers.com-Unpublished Marvel Comics Adaptation of Dweller In The Depths Revealed By Dave Hunt The Allspark-Unpublished Marvel G1 comic art for an adaptation of "The Dweller in the Depths" TFArchive-"Lost" Marvel Issue Art Discovered. Transmasters UK-Unpublished Comics based on Marvel US cartoon OzFormers-Unproduced Marvel Gen1 comic story

THERE'S NO OTHER LIKE HIM!

Depending on what time it was, Bob Budiansky was at his table drawing all manner of superheroes, monsters, demons and robots. And some people even came by to get sketches from him, too! Yes I finally got the chance to sit down for a good 20 minutes and talk to the man who killed Optimus Prime about all sorts of stuff from the recent revival of interest in Sleepwalker and Brute Force to that time Hasbro locked him up and fed him raw meat. Unfortunately I did not get to ask him what Leader-1's tech spec motto would be or if the cover to The Interplanetary Wrestling Championship was a metaphor for a man's quest to rid one's self of toy robot addiction, but here's hoping maybe one day down the line he'll accidentally find himself at a 7-11 in Florida where I'm buying lotto tickets, hot dogs, and Tastycake lemon pies and our magical conversation lightning will strike again.



SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE

Neal Adams sang me the Bucky O'Hare song!

• Hello from East Coast Comic Con!
• Stan Lee and Mecha Godzilla were at MegaCon
• Quickly talking to Mark Texeira
• The original cover art to Transformers #3 is on display at the Museum of Cartoon Art
• Mark Texeira's recent Ghost Rider cover
• Mark's work at PKMM Entertainment
• PKMM on Facebook
• The once in a lifetime picture I screwed up by not knowing he did the cover to issue #3
• That time I asked Mike Zeck about the cover to Transformers #3.
• Asking Herb Trimpe about his involvement in Dinosaurs Attack and The Night the Transformers Saved Christmas
• Singing The Ballad of Pirate Jenny to Larry Hama
• The time I met Larry Hama dressed as a GoBot.
• Fred Hembeck is doing ROM sketch cards
• Interview with Dave Hunt
• Dave Hunt / Jose Delbo collaborations
• Mr. Hunt explains the practice of inventory stories
• Papercutz losing the Lego license.
• The last time I talked to Jim Salicrup
• Me guesting on The Paunch Stevenson Show episode 262
• Interview with Bob Budiansky
• Sleepwalker #1 recently hitting $15 after his appearance in the last issues of Fantastic Four
• The return of Brute Force in the Deadpool Bi-Annual
• The relaunch of Sleepwalker by Robert Kirkman
• 1984 newspaper article where Hasbro admits feeding Bob raw meat.
• Don't Rocket Punch Your Friends!

A Hot Pocket for 20 cents is a steal any day of the week.

THE KING OF ALL MONSTERS!

I never really understood why people wept when movie stars or royalty died. I get it now. Herb Trimpe was my Clint Eastwood of comics and my King Richard of robots. I loved him and his work so much that Colin and I dedicated entire episodes of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse to our disappointment at not being able to see him after last minute cancellations at conventions. And when the stars aligned and I finally did get to meet him, it was glorious.

He was at East Coast Comic Con this past weekend so I made sure to stop by his table and finally get my Robotix #1 signed. I planned on buying a sketch and getting a picture with him but his Saturday commissions list was full. I asked him if he'd be back Sunday and he said yes so I figured I'd get that drawing and picture then. He never showed up Sunday and I guess I figured it wasn't a big deal and we'd meet again somewhere down the road.

Well I won't be getting that chance now but I will cherish forever that conversation we had in episode 73 about why Transformers weren't all that great and why Shogun Warriors were. And of course spending most of our time talking not about robot comic books but about being Air Force Weather observers during two entirely different eras. Thank you so much for keeping such a rigorous convention schedule and giving so many people the chance to meet you, but most of all, goodbye, Mr. Trimpe. Wherever you are I know those kaiju have gotta be running scared from your rocket punches!

THE END OF THE ROAD!

Having a blog and podcast has been an absolute blast, both because of the people I've fooled into talking to me and especially the ones I have fooled into listening to me. I also had a blast this weekend after spending a little bit of time with Mark Texeira, Dave Hunt, and Bob Budiansky. I don't know that I've ever had more fun than I did at East Coast Comic Con.

I came to the realization that there's nothing I could really do to top the soon to be released show 82, plus my impending move from Florida in a few weeks is going to be a big change. Southern Florida was really the heart of the Roboplastic Podcastalypse and it will not be the same without recording here. Plus 84 is a really cool number to end a show about old toy robots on.

So I just wanted to let you, my fellow Macrocranians, know that episode 84 will be the last episode of The Roboplastic Podcastalypse. 82 will be the ECCC show, 83 I would like to do a listener call in type deal and 84 will be kind of a special retrospective. I'd like to release 84 on the 4th of July so I can pretend the fireworks are for me!

I have already written here a little more than I think an announcement about the end of a show with 12 listeners deserves but I figured a bit of an explanation was in order because you guys mean a lot to me.

GoBot or GoLanta!

The cracking of the 81st seal of the Roboplastic Apocalypse unleashes hundreds of action figure people, monsters, and robots blasting off in their little plastic space ships and shuttles for the Marriot Century Center in Atlanta, Georgia! Journey with the Nostrodomatron to the lost continent of JoeLanta where all manner of exotic action figures and people from the last 40 years of toy aisles gathered to buy toys, sell toys, dress up like toys, and drop toys on each others' heads from 15 stories high. Listen to bizarre stories of me talking to exciting new people like 90s Robotech artist Dusty Griffin, reuniting with exciting old people like Radio Free Cybertron's Brian Kilby, and skillfully avoiding katanas to my face while in the presence of Larry Hama. How much fun was it being a teenager drawing a Robotech comic book in the 90s? How much not fun was it missing out on the cool JoeLanta panels? And what happens when you enter a GI Joe convention's cosplay contest dressed in a cardboard GoBot costume? Find out all that and more in this GOing IS HALF THE BATTLE edition of the Podcastalypse!

Or download it directly

See a ton more of my JoeLanta 2015 pictures at Flickr Macrocrania.


SLAY YOUR WALLET AND ALL YOU DESIRE SHALL BE YOURS

It's been a long time since I've been to a convention in a hotel where the focus is purely on toys, and I've never been to one on the magnitude of JoeLanta. JoeLanta is like a Secret Wars world of toys where the Beyonder made a hotel from different 80s toy store aisles and combined them all into one absolutely magical old toy shopping experience. To describe this as a 12 inch G.I. Joe con or even just a hotel toy convention doesn't do it justice. JoeLanta is almost like visiting a Toys R Us that hasn't sold out of anything since 1976. There was every gigantic toy playset from every major toyline going back to the early 80s. I saw the Death Star, Castle Greyskull, Snake Mountain, Fortress Maximus, Defiant Shuttle Complexes, Terrordromes, Boulder Hill, the U.S.S. Flagg, and the GoBot Command Center. About the only notably missing stuff was playsets from lesser known lines like Robo Force, Voltron, and Robotech but they may have been there and I just didn't see them. It was an absolute blast because you never knew what you were going to see as you walked around. Just about every toyline from my late 70s/mid 80s childhood was represented by loose, boxed, or sealed toys or paraphernalia. Ironically I didn't see any Secret Wars toys but at JoeLanta you LIVE the Secret Wars of toys. .


WHEN TOYLINETINENTS COLLIDE

Highlights of the show for me included seeing a loose AND boxed Mattel Godzilla, a Matchbox Robotech Destroid Monster with the Kay Bee clearance price tag of $1.99, the entire first series of carded Rock Lords for 35 bucks each, and the hardcover version of the Kid Stuff read along Transformers book 'When Continents Collide'. (You can see a picture of me buying it here.) I didn't even know the hardcover version existed and I was further floored to find it had extra illustrations not included in the softcover version I grew up with! I will probably be doing a post about that in the future because I did not expect to make such a momentous new-to-me Transformers discovery like that. I was so pumped that I went online to research it and came across this great episode of the Fanholes podcast featuring an in depth exploration of When Continents Collide and also Satellite of Doom. Super huge thanks to Andrea's 80s Toys for selling me the book for five bucks. I haven't been this excited about continental collisions since 1985.


RETURN TO RETURN TO MACROSS

Dusty Griffin was just seventeen years old back in 1996 when he drew and inked the last seven issues of Academy Comics' 'Robotech: Return to Macross'. In the only portion of this episode actually recorded at JoeLanta, we talked about what it was like working for a tiny indie comic studio that somehow landed the international Robotech license. It was fun getting to meet a guy who was living the dream drawing the final seven issues of a Robotech book at an age when my biggest accomplishment was getting a letter printed in the Transformers comic. We hit on what it was like having critics (and how he handled one of his more outspoken ones), working with Harmony Gold, and how he's still drawing robotty stuff all these years later.


THE MOST DANGEROUS CON IN THE WORLD

The Saturday night parachute drop was pretty much my whole reason for attending. People would strap parachutes to their twelve inch tall GI Joes and drop them 15 stories from the top of the hotel onto the grateful heads of the assembled uplookers in the lobby below. Or at least that's what they were supposed to do. The figures whose parachutes successfully deployed weren't in the clear unless they avoided veering into lower floor hallways, getting stuck on the lobby light fixtures, or flying into the dreaded elevator shafts. This insanity is what sets Joelanta apart from your normal toy convention craziness. This insanity is also what separates the Marriot from hotels with working elevators.


Crappy phone pic I took at the Collecting Transformers panel.


Radio Free GoBotron! Scooter hangs with Andrew, Brian, and Rob from RFC.


CHALLENGE OF THE JOEBOT COSTUME

My Scooter costume was in terrible shape after the last time I wore it at Florida Supercon. It was smashed to hell all stuffed into a tiny suitcase, torn and broken with missing pieces, and I don't know what the heck I was thinking making his face eyerolling like that. So I decided what Scooter needed for GoLanta was a complete overhaul including new parts and getting that frown turned upside down. Unfortunately I decided to start working on this at the last minute but that was cool because driving yourself crazy finishing your ridiculous costume is standard practice as I learned from Yaya Han on that Heroes of Cosplay show. So I spent all night Saturday until 5 am Sunday fixing up the thing in the hotel bathroom so as to not disturb my family with the sound of unrolling duct tape and the smell of sharpie marker. Sunday morning once it was go time I realized I had to choose between attending Larry Hama's Silent Interlude panel dressed up as a cardboard robot or just going as a normal weirdo. Since I wanted maximum GoBot costume time and I didn't want to be a distraction at his panel, I chose to suit up and not attend. It was a tough choice but I think it was the right one because any convention where I can leave without getting my ass kicked by Larry Hama is a good one.


CALAMITY AND JOE

Last December I got to meet Larry Hama and he gave me thirty minutes that forever changed my life (or at least an appreciation of Broadway show tunes). This go round was supposed to be the momentous occasion where I introduced him to my kid (and the more momentouser occasion where I'd get my Bucky O' Hare Christmas cards signed). But we're there at his table and my son blanks out like he's never heard of Bucky O' Hare before, making me seem like one of Chuck Dixon's Seven Deadly Fans. Then I forgot to pull out my Bucky O' Hare Christmas cards and to top it all off I'm dressed as a cardboard GoBot. The whole time I get the feeling he was just waiting to plant a katana in my forehead if I gave him a reason to. So I wasn't exactly endearing myself to the man but he did sign my 30th anniversary copy of Silent Interlude, my Peter Porker #1, and my Blinky.


NO GOOD GOBOT COSTUME GOES UNPUNISHED

I was having my delusions of JoeLantean grandeur and gift certificates so I decided to enter the costume contest, which I've never done before despite my history of robot costume ridiculousness. In keeping with my GoBot or Go Home attitude I decided to answer all the emcee's questions in character with my horrendous Frank Welker impersonation which hopefully did not get recorded despite all those bright little red lights I saw floating in the sea of audience darkness. It was pretty trippy when the room exploded in applause after Scooter admitted being made of cardboard and duct tape. It was also pretty weird when the winner was determined by which contestant got the most cheers from the crowd and they cheered the loudest for me! But the most surreal part of the whole experience was when I went to collect my prize expecting to get a gift certificate to the dealer room and they instead gave me my choice of four Monster High dolls. But in the end I was just grateful that the JoeLanta crowd let any ani-GoBot hate go and elected me their king. And I was also grateful nobody showed up dressed as Optimus Prime.



SHOW NOTES OF THE PODCASTALYPSE

• It's the end of the world!
• Robo Force by DJ Flula and Captain Danger
• Robo Force The Revenge of Nazgar on DVD for the first time ever!
• JoeLanta
• JoeLanta Parachute Drop video by RFC
• Radio Free Cybertron Collecting Transformers panel LINK COMING SOON
• Revised GoBots volume 2 solicitation without Robo Force
• Radio Free Cybertron no longer available on RealMedia format
• Dusty Griffin's run on Return to Macross
• Dusty Griffin's rendition of Autobot Gears
• DustyGriffin on Deviant art
• Dusty Griffin.com
• Larry Hama's Silent Interlude panel
• The things I put Larry Hama through
• When I went to see the original art from the Kid Stuff books
• Fanholes When Continents Collide/Satellite of Doom retrospective episode
• East Coast Comic Con
• Transformer coloring book Frank Springer penciled
• 'I sold a Transformer book to a GoBot!'
• Don't Rocket Punch Your Friends!